


The Deal That Wasn't

by Realsupergirl



Category: Orange is the New Black, The Wire
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 10:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15046988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Realsupergirl/pseuds/Realsupergirl
Summary: Alex Vause meets Omar Little in Baltimore in a chance meeting, consider the possibility of doing business together.





	The Deal That Wasn't

The Deal That Wasn’t

Alex Vause had heard Omar Little was bad news, but she was strangely intrigued. It was strange because Alex didn't find men all that intriguing, and she dealt with a lot of men in her line of work. Mostly she found them to be sort of simple, and vaguely annoying. She often joked with Piper that they ought to break off from the boys’ club they worked for and start their own drug smuggling business.  
It was Piper who caused Alex to be in Baltimore in the first place. Normally Alex wouldn't have been caught dead in Baltimore. Too poor, too trashy, too much like home in New York City. But Piper wanted her to come to some friend of theirs' wedding, so there she was. It was their first appearance together as a couple. Piper's sister Polly was there too, and she had met Alex before, but acted like she hadn't. It was junior high school all over again, even though these days Alex could afford a designer dress to wear to the wedding.  
Alex had snuck outside the VFW for a smoke when she ran into Omar, but she'd heard tons about him, and recognized him immediately by the big scar on his face. If you're dealing drugs and you have to go to Baltimore, apparently it's necessary to be warned about Omar Little, who might try and steal your stash.  
"Wedding?" Omar asked her smoothly.  
"Yeah," Alex said, determined to play it cool. "Heteros, you know? That's what they do,"  
"Homos too, ain't you heard? Maryland got on board last year."  
"You getting married, then, Omar?" Alex asked.  
Omar didn't seem surprised she knew his name.  
"Marriage ain't for Omar," Omar shook his head.  
"Yeah, it's not for me either," Alex concurred.  
"You gotta girl in there?" Omar asked.  
"How did you- " Alex started, then stopped. "Yeah, I got a girl."  
"We can smell each other, you feel me? " Omar said softly. "I can tell which way you roll, you can tell which way I roll."  
Alex didn't say anything. Truthfully, she hadn't given much thought to which way Omar rolled, but she had heard about him being gay from other people, and when he correctly guessed she was too, just figured that was why he knew. Briefly Alex considered whether people were talking about her the same way people talked about Omar, but she concluded probably not. Alex did her best to fly under the radar, whereas it didn't seem like Omar tried to do so. And the number of dealers and mules she had to deal with who assumed she was straight told her it wasn't common knowledge otherwise.  
Not that Alex was closeted. She just didn't talk about who she was fucking, unless she was fucking them. It wasn't like she was going to weddings and shit where she'd have to be out in a public way. Until Piper came along, anyway.  
"Where is she?" Omar asked.  
"Oh, probably dancing with her best friend. Or her dad. They're all real close," Alex said.  
"You ain't close to them?"  
"I'm not. I mean, they're nice and all, but I'm not really the meeting family type. I mean, I've never really had anyone whose family wanted to meet me. Who got that serious, you know?" Alex said, uncharacteristically babbly.  
"Yeah," Omar inhaled deeply on his cigarette. Alex waited for him to say more, but he didn't.  
"It's a different world, for me. No one had twenty thousand dollar weddings when I was growing up. Most people couldn't even afford to get married." Alex remembered trying to explain this to Piper one day, and the blank look she got back in response.  
"Yeah, me too," Omar laughed."I used to watch television and think Baltimore was a different planet. All these two parent families, big weddings, rich people, and ain't no one I know like that. Not a lot of big fancy weddings in the projects.”  
"Except the drug dealers," Alex laughed with him, nodding,  
"I've thought about proposing to Brandon, though," Omar said, his tone shifting along with legs, "I like that boy a lot."  
"I don't know if I'd want to get married though," Alex said, "What does it mean, anyway? I won't fuck anyone else? Why do I need to get married to say that?"  
Omar stubbed it his cigarette. "It means you care, g. And don't it make it easier to like, leave her money and shit if you die?"  
"Yeah, but Piper doesn't need my money. Her family's loaded."  
0mar shrugged. "I wasn't talking about money. I was talking about love, g."  
Alex was thrown off guard, hearing these words come out of the famous Omar Little's mouth. It was likely someone dubbed the words into his face; they just didn't seem to match up. But then she looked away; and looked back again, and noticed something she hadn't before - he had really soft eyes. Gentle eyes. The scar across his face made it easy to miss at first, but there they were. Omar Little, the great, scary Omar Little, was a hopeless fucking romantic.  
"I've got a proposition for you, Omar," Alex said, feeling a little reckless. She wasn't here to drum up new business, she was here to attend the stupid wedding, and pick up one thing while she was here. But if she was serious about branching off on her on some day - and she was - she had to start figuring out how to do that some time.  
"Omar don't usually listen to propositions from strangers," Omar said.  
"Probably a good policy," Alex conceded. "But hear me out. Better yet, meet me to check it out. If you want out, you're out."  
"Meet you where?"  
"The docks," Alex said. Tonight, two AM."  
"Ain't you gotta take your lady friend home, do...whatever it is you do?" Omar asked.  
"Piper's cool. She'll probably come. She's part of the plan."  
"Oh, is that how it works for you, yo?" Omar asked. "Alright, Omar will be there, check this scheme out. Might have back up, cause you never know how things roll, you feel me?"  
"Oh yes. I feel you," Alex nodded, excited like usual but strangely scared at the same time.

It was two-fifteen and Piper, still half drunk from the wedding, was getting antsy. Alex was getting ready to bail as well, but she was getting more annoyed by Piper at the same time. Alex doesn't drink much, and sometimes she finds Piper's low tolerance tipsy flirtyness incredibly hot, and sometimes it grated on her last nerve. Right now, watching Piper twirl her stained bridesmaid dress and tipping her head to one side, Alex wished she'd insisted on Piper going back to the hotel.  
"Omar here,".A voice sounded out in the dark.  
"Third person, really?" Piper giggled to Alex, a little too loudly.  
"Who's she? Omar asked. "Is that your girl?"  
Alex could hear a shot gun clicking.  
"Babe, shut up," Alex said to Piper, "Yes, Omar, that's Piper. She’s here with me, just like I said. Where are you? Are you alone?" It was pitch black all around, and Omar was so dark-skinned, and the lights in the dockyard all seemed to be out tonight,  
"I'm here," Omar said, holding up something shiny that caught the moonlight just so. Then he took a few steps and suddenly he was right there, about two feet away to the left of where Piper was standing. He seemed to have stepped out of one of the warehouse containers, although they hadn't opened, so Alex figured out he must have just been between them.  
"Whoa," Piper gasped a seeing him, all six feet and scar of him. Next to her skinny little rich white girl body. Alex almost started to laugh, but the shotgun he was holding sobered her up pretty fast.  
“So what’s your plan?” Omar asked, ignoring Piper.  
“Shipment comes in at three. Three kilos. But my guy only ordered two. We split the third, maybe make something happen in the future.  
“Omar don’t do drugs, ma’am. Ain’t no idea what you’re talking about.”  
Alex rolled her eyes. He thought she was a motherfucking nark! What the hell. The idea of a six foot something, black man with a shotgun by the docks of Baltimore at two AM acting like he wasn’t a drug dealer was irritatingly ridiculous. But she knew what he was doing. If Alex was a nark, she’d have to identify herself eventually.  
“I’m not a nark, Omar. I’m the real thing. You in or not?”  
“Don’t know what you’re talking about, but Omar don’t make plans like that. Takes weeks before things are in place. That’s how I roll.”  
“Fine, whatever. Thought we could do business in the future, I don’t have any Baltimore connections, you’re my people. But apparently not. See you later.” Alex waved her hand at him in frustration, grabbed Piper’s hand and started walking out of the warehouses.  
“You thought you was my people?” Omar asked.  
“Sure,” Alex turned, gave him a puzzled look. “How many dyke or fag dealers out there do you know?”  
Omar shrugged. “Omar’s got a code. Ain’t got many people, cause most people don’t live by the code.”  
“What’s your code?” Alex asked.  
“No using. No swearing. No involving regular folk. Only steal from dealers,” Omar rattled off. “Don’t matter to me if you’re gay, but until I know you respect the code, I ain’t going into business with you.”  
“Well, your loss, Omar, “Alex said impatiently. Like she particularly wanted to split up her side money? What the hell. She was annoyed with herself for having even offered. It was a dumb idea. She wanted to get the hell out of there, dump Piper off at the hotel, and come back and pick it up.  
“Never occurred to me that being gay would make me think we were the same,” Omar said softly. “Don’t hang with many dykes I guess.”  
“Yeah, me either,” Alex said, glancing at Piper.  
“That’s cool, I guess.” Omar slung the shotgun over his shoulder and started to walk past where Alex and Piper were stopped. “Maybe I’ll see you around some time.”  
“Maybe,” Alex said. “Let’s go, Pipes.”  
Alex took Piper by the hand – half to help her walk since she was still drunk, half because it felt good to touch her – and led her back to their car. It felt good to have someone by her side. The boys club was a lonely place sometimes. She probably wouldn’t ever see Omar Little again, but she kind of hoped maybe she would.


End file.
